EA is Reportedly Ditching the Stock Market in a Massive $50 Billion Deal
In a move that feels a bit like trading a demonic possession for a vampire infestation, Electronic Arts is reportedly looking to ditch the stock market.
That’s right, the videogame behemoth behind EA Sports FC and Battlefield is nearing a deal to be taken private for a rumored price tag of around $50 billion. If it goes through, it would likely be the largest leveraged buyout in history. The potential buyers? A group of investors that includes private-equity firm Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
The news has been met with a weird mix of relief and suspicion from the gaming community, and for good reason.
Escaping the 'Disease'
Let's be honest, seeing a gaming giant untether itself from the stock market feels like a win. For years, we've watched publicly traded companies like EA make baffling, anti-consumer decisions, all in the name of appeasing shareholders and ensuring the line on the quarterly earnings report always goes up.
That pressure is why we get half-finished games rushed out the door and beloved franchises crammed with microtransactions. Taking a company private could, in theory, free it from that relentless cycle. It could allow for longer-term thinking and more creative risks instead of just chasing the next fiscal quarter's profits.
Meet the New Bosses
So, who are our potential new saviors? A private-equity firm and the Saudi PIF. Not exactly a plucky group of indie developers, are they?
This is where the cautious optimism starts to curdle. While escaping the demands of a thousand faceless shareholders sounds great, we'd be trading them for a few, extremely powerful new owners who are still going to want a massive return on their $50 billion investment.
A Lesser Evil?
At the end of the day, that's what this feels like: a choice between two different kinds of corporate overlords. It's impossible to say what this would actually mean for the quality of EA's games. Maybe, freed from the stock market's short-sightedness, they'll give their studios the time and resources to make something truly great again.
Or maybe we'll just get a new, more efficient flavor of monetization. Either way, we're trading one disease for another. But hey, at least the symptoms might be different. A deal could reportedly be announced as soon as next week, so we won't have to wait long to see what fresh hell awaits us.